Thanks, thanks, thanks for the always appreciated reviews Leentje, JenJenxx, Rainygal, danhyde girl, 333 and kursk. Btw... kursk, you're so right, I fixed it in this chapter, thanks!
Chapter 7
"Summer, please say something" Marissa begged after a few moments of complete silence.
Summer just shook her head, still staring at the picture of the dark blonde boy with the amazingly blue eyes, she was holding in her hand.
"This will send him over the edge..." finally the mother of two whispered, her voice trembling.
"So you don't think I should tell him?" Marissa asked weakly.
"Definitely not now... Gosh, I still can't believe it..." Summer seemed to wake up from her state of trance, looking directly at her best friend.
"How could you hide him for such a long time?" she then asked astonished.
"Well, after my fight with Ryan I couldn't go back, telling him I was expecting his child... So I went to live with Dad and Haley until my angel was born. A few months later I left for the model academy, leaving him in the custody of my Dad. I visited him as often as I could. When my career took off, he accompanied me around the world. Later I bought a flat for him in New York and employed a Nanny who took care of him when school started. That's where he has been living for the last few years... But now I wanna move back to Newport, I want him to go to Harbour..."
"But why?" Summer asked puzzled.
"It's… it's not so easy to explain… I just… I don't know how to handle him anymore" Marissa confessed.
"He had a hard time in New York. The kids made fun of him because his Nanny attended all the school festivals and stuff and no "real parents" were around. I had a few boyfriends but he didn't like any of them and he kept telling them - believe me He's a lot like his Dad I guess... Now he's about to become a teenager and…. We're fighting most of the time… He keeps asking questions about his Dad, why he was abandoned, why his father isn't interested in him… he even searched through my stuff to find out who his Dad is… I'm scared that he will find out and contact Ryan, so I really need to tell him, before anything happens…. …"
"Wow…" Summer stammered, pictures of a furious Ryan floating through her mind.
"Okay... I'm sorry Marissa but I need some time to process this news... and I need to talk to Seth... We're worried about Ryan at the moment anyway, so he can not learn about his son right now, there is too much trouble in his life...".
"Sure..." Marissa nodded understandingly.
Marissa didn't stay for much longer but said goodbye to Summer. Ryan had called her in the morning and cancelled their plans for dinner, as he was busy with his wife. She understood and didn't press him to do anything, she knew he needed time. So after her visit at Summer she headed home to pick up her boy for a day at the beach. She enjoyed finally having the time to spend more time with her son, to make up for all the times she hadn't been around, hoping they could bond and stop the fighting. But it did bother her that she wasn't able to tell him that they were close to his Dad, without being able to actually meet him.
Summer meanwhile paced through the house restlessly, trying to absorb all the recent events. When she had changed Benjamin's nappies and put him back to sleep she called Seth, hoping he'd know what to do. She told him that it was urgent and Seth was smart enough to understand that she was serious. They agreed to meet for lunch.
Summer was already sitting at the table in the beach restaurant with Benjamin playing on her lap, happily babbling ad smiling at the people around him, when Seth turned up.
"Hey darling" he greeted his wife with a kiss on the cheek and quickly run his hand over Benjamin's hair before he sat down with a sigh, placing his laptop below the table.
"I took the afternoon off, it's such a lovely day and I think we should go over to the Atwood's and see if we can do anything. Ryan stayed at home today, I tried calling his office this morning."
"Yeah… I don't think we should go over, they're at the doctors, give them some time alone Seth..." Summer answered adding "they need it" under her breath.
"Ok… So... what did you wanna talk about?" Seth then asked, while smiling at his son who was laughing and clapping his little hands together.
"Marissa has a 12 year old son."
"Wow... that's.. surprising for a model with her figure" Seth joked, his gaze still fixed on Benjamin.
"Cohen!" Summer replied, giving him a stern glance.
"What! So she does have a child, she lived her own life, you can't expect her to supply you with a summary of her diary every month!"
"Seth... he's 12"
"Yeah, I heard. Where does he live? Maybe he can meet Cassandra, she seriously needs a boyfriend, I don't want her to become like me when I was a teenager - but actually - he's Marissa's son, I don't know if we can trust him."
Seth rambled on, his brain obviously working slower at this time of the day.
"Maybe if we knew the father, we could judge better if he'd be suitable for our little princess. Do you know who the father is? - Oh don't tell me! It's a gay designer who just wanted to experiment, right?"
He chuckled over his own joke before he turned his gaze to Summer who looked very pissed.
"Ok, I'll stop... so seriously, who is the -" Seth stopped when it hit him. He remained silent for a few moments before he asked:
"12 years old?"
Summer nodded, seeing that the he was finally on the right path.
"No way..." Seth gasped when he saw his wife's serious expression, her eyes full of worry.
"Holy Moses" he whispered, as the full weight of the news sunk in.
Sitting on the couch in the living room, Ryan had placed his arm around Bernadette and she was leaning her head to his shoulder, neither of them speaking but enjoying the presence of each other. It had been a busy day. They had visited some doctors after Alyssa left, trying to figure out what exactly could be done.
Hearing for the first time from the doctor's mouth, that there was no hope left, even not with an abortion, Ryan felt helpless. He tried to stay calm, being strong for his wife, supporting her all the way through, but inside of him he was screaming. He was confused, angry and irritated about the thought that the woman he loved was again about to leave him. But he was even more angry at himself for not being able to forget Marissa.
Sure, he had been holding his wife's hand, talking to the doctors and listening to their advice, but his thoughts were constantly circling around his ex-girlfriend. Nobody knew, that when he started dating Bernadette, it was more an act of defiance. He needed to prove himself that there were other fish in the water. Unfortunately he forgot that another person's feelings were involved, which were likely to be hurt. He remembered how he had made sure that Summer informed Marissa about his new girlfriend. It was his only chance to see if she was coming back.
When she didn't react to the news at all, he knew for sure that she was lost - forever. On one hand he was thankful for the clean break they had now. He knew, he had to move on with life, she was never coming back to him. On the other hand it hurt - hurt the way he was hurting when Dawn left for good.
Bernadette was a lovely girl. He had really liked her from the start. She was loyal, caring and a very good listener, and it was obvious that she was in love with him. It wasn't hard for Ryan to figure out that he could grow to love her.
Although he felt guilty so many times for imagining Marissa standing in the kitchen when he got home or being close to call Bernadette with his ex-girlfriends name, he pulled himself together and managed to live the life of a happy married man and loving father without anyone knowing what he really felt on the inside.
But now that Bernadette was dying and Marissa was back, he felt his carefully built life tumbling down around him. Of course, it hurt to see Bernadette leaving. He loved her in a special way. She had been his best friend and partner for 11 years now and she had given him the most precious gift in the world - his daughter - for what he would be forever grateful for. Bernadette had been loyal and supportive through their marriage, always having his back, believing in him and helping him through the hard times he had when Kirsten asked him to take over the Newport Group. But never in all those years had he loved her the way she deserved it, the way he knew he still loved Marissa. The longer he was thinking about it, the clearer it became, that he needed to figure this out - alone.
When Bernadette stifled a yawn beside him, he gently squeezed her shoulder, forcing her to look at him. "You should go to bed sweetheart, it was a long day and you need all your strength right now" he softly told her, lightly running his hand down her cheek.
"You're right… I'll be off to bed then, you coming with me?" his wife replied tired, stretching her body.
"I have some work to do first, my assistant brought some files over this afternoon , I'll join you later, don't wait up, ok?"
"'kay…."
Ryan supported her to get up, before he tenderly kissed Bernadette goodnight. When she was gone, he waited a few minutes before he got up and walked over to his office, grabbed his training clothes and stepped into the bathroom to change. 10 minutes later he picked up his keys from the commode in the entrance and left without looking back.
next update probably on Saturday or Sunday...